The Value of Kin
by KageSakura
Summary: COMPLETE Kincentered ONESHOT. Kin wakes up in the hospital after Shikamaru beats her in the Chuunin Exam. NarutoxKin request. agnsty rated for certain implied factors, but nothing to out of this world. Review pls


Request Story for Drauka who wanted a NarutoxKinstory...Well it's more of a friendship/spiritual level Kin-centered,but I tried. So here ya go enjoy ppl oh and I edited the Hokage thing...my bad I could sworn I had wrote the Third, but whatever. Thanks for the reviews!

Warnings- Depressing, Angst, and mentions of suicide, made me depressed just writing it.--" You have been warned...

Disclaimer- If life was fair I would own Naruto, but I don't. So leave me alone!_cries in corner_

_**The Value of Kin**_

"_My name is Uzamaki Naruto! And none of you will defeat me!" _

"_So trouble some…."._

"_Hell no! I wont lose!" _

"_Who's got who?"_

Images, images of brats: A model-wannabe pink haired girl, smirking as she heroically cuts her hair to free herself. A blond screaming idiot with the dream of becoming Hokage someday, a long raven-haired, white-eyed, jerk with a superiority complex, an annoying blond bitch who had the nerve to gain control of her mind, and use her against her comrades. All brats. So why did she have to lose to the biggest laziest, idiotic, brat of them all?

"_Hmm…it is so troublesome to fight with a girl…."_Argh. If that stupid wall hadn't been behind her…

She rubbed her head. It still hurt. She had just awakened in Konoha Hospital a few minutes ago, clad in hospital pajamas, to be informed that the whole preliminary tournament had ended, by a nurse who was getting ready to go home. It was over. She had failed. The last thing she remembered was that shadow-controlling idiot. She slammed her fist on the bedside table. She was furious of course, she had lost to an amateur. But she had also failed Orochimaru; who was most likely beside himself with anger right now, at the failure of Zaku and herself. She sat up thinking. Zaku had lost his capacity to use his arms (which was the sole mechanism of his technique) he was useless now. She had lost miserably to an elementary school age, lazy, brat she was as useless as Zaku. They had both failed miserably. Orochimaru would not need them now, she thought. _What now?_

She laughed bitterly, at the fact that she had asked the question out loud. Now she was a loser with no future, especially once Orochimaru caught up to her. Thinking back, she had never really cared for such things. She just did as she was told, carried out her missions, played her part, served her purpose, and she had done it well. Done it so well that "the" Orochimaru himself assigned her a position as an underling. She had agreed to the missions, as she always had. She had done her part, as she always had. But this time she had failed.

She sighed dejectedly. Something on her beside table caught her eye. She looked down bitterly at the forehead protector, which had the Sound Village symbol imbedded in the silver plate. It looked like a foreign object on the table, as she had always remembered wearing it, and she felt strange now that she wasn't.

Her reflection in the mirror stared at her solemnly and her eyes met those of an average looking girl, too tall for her age, with a curtain of long raven colored hair.

Her forehead was white and clearly visible now, and she looked at her reflection as if she had never really noticed it before. Silly as it was her forehead protector seemed to have become a part of her the moment she became a shinobi. She had never taken it off out of custom, and the fact that Sound was a dangerous village where having protective gear at all times was considered advisable. It represented all her village stood for, and the ideals of Sound Ninjas. Her identity to this point had been defined by the symbol on her brow. Without it, she was just Kin.

The Kin in the mirror stared at her mockingly as if to say 'This is who you really are'. A failure who had lost her purpose. Orochimaru didn't need her now. The sound didn't need her now, Konoha certainly hadn't needed her in the first place, not even her so-called team needed her.

"_Do you think that will stop us? Said the Sound nin called Dosu in an amused tone._

"_We'll kill Kin if we need to in order to succeed with this mission."_

Dosu, her teammate had said this quite clearly when Kin had been possessed by Ino, and he had not been at all hesitant when he attacked her in order to get rid of the blond kunoichi. She really hated the memory, but it only supported her conclusion. No one needed her.

The Kin in the mirror was a nobody, a weakling. Orochimaru would find her, and who knows what he would do, and she had no where to go, no one to turn to….

"_Kin, huh?That means you're like gold, with a precious value in life."_

The sudden memory awakened the resentment within her driving her into an extreme, pitiful level of sorrow. She did not remember who had said those words to her long ago. But his voice seemed to be mocking her. '_Precious value'?_ At this moment she felt far from it. In fact she was feeling so worthless he had to laugh at the irony of it. Kin. A precious metal. Gold. Tough, reliable, precious. She had never felt that way. All her life she had been subject to the street life: stealing and fighting for food, facing the torment of being an orphan with no one to want her. Not believing she was of use to anyone she was always absorbing herself in her missions, telling herself that that was her purpose. Walking alone at night she would always hope to find someone who believed she did have a purpose, someone who would want her. Orochimaru had wanted her. He had needed her abilities, and she had let him use her. In return he had given her a purpose: To exterminate the Uchiha brat, a plan which had changed drastically in its course. In her last hope to keep her mission, she had lost by default, defeated by a lazy bum and a wall. She sighed. The story of her life, she could right a book, but no one would read it. Spirits considerably low, she looked angrily again at her reflection. Staring at the loser in the glass. The same useless, young, naïve girl she had been when she left the Sound, in hope, hope that her value, her purpose, would be revealed along the way. Now there was no hope.

In her depressed state she picked up the kunai hiding in her ninja attire beside her bed. I didn't matter now. Orochimaru would get her sooner or later. It never mattered…He didn't…. need her, no one did…She brought the kunai's sharp glistening blad to her wrist taking in the contrast of flesh to metal…This was all she was fit for….This was how it was supposed to be…

"NANI!"

She dropped the blade at the foreign voice, accidently nicking her skin. The door had swung open. A blonde boy with blue eyes and a confused face had walked in. "Dame…That bastard told me the restroom was through this door." he said, scratching his head.

Kin blinked. She recognized him as the stupid blonde that had miraculously gotten through the second part of the chunin exam, after an encounter with her team and Orochimaru. The same idiot that had made a room full of enemies the first day of the exam by yelling those stupid words: "I'm gonna be Hokage! None of you will defeat me!"

Uzumaki Naruto. _What the hell was is doing here?_

"What the hell are you doing here, said Kin true to her thoughts. "Get out."

The blonde just stared at her blue eyes wide with worry. 'Eh? Hey lady you're bleeding…"

Kin looked at her arm and remembered what she had been about to do before the idiot walked in. She would have done it…

"And what's it to you? You're not supposed to be here anyway."

Naruto cocked his head from side to side. "You really should get that cut treated."

Kin sweat-dropped. Had he not heard her? Was he to stupid to realize she was throwing him out?

She watched as Naruto rummaged in his pockets and pulled out what seemed to be a cream container. "Ah! Hinata gave this to me. Works like a charm" he said, putting it in Kin's hands. "Use it and you'll be healed in no time!" He smiled that huge smile of his.

Kin was taken aback. What the--? Was this boy's brain damaged? She had tried to kill him and his pink-haired friend, and here he was giving her ointment for her stupid cut. Did he not know who she was?

"…I hope it helps…." Naruto was saying.

She caught sight of her reflection for the umpteenth time today, a girl with long dark hair and dark eyes, wearing blue pajamas stared back. He didn't see her as the evil Sound nin, rather a pretty hospital patient with a cut on her arm. She smiled despite herself. "Thank you" she said sincerely for the first time in her life.

Naruto scratched his head. "Eh lady I gotta get going, hope you get out of this depressing place soon. Ganbatte ne!

And as quickly as he had come he disappeared. Leaving no trace that he had even been there, except for the ointment Kin was still clutching absent-mindedly. _"What a character", s_he thought smiling slightly.

He had been the first out of many who actually showed concern for her, even though she didn't deserve any on his part. He had without knowing saved her life, and her freed spirit with the kindness he had exhibited. He had saved her at the last very last moment. Maybe this meant that there was a reason for her to keep on living? For her to keep on hoping? She thought as she delicately slathered the ointment on her wound.

She didn't completely understand it, she didn't think she ever would, but she realized that maybe shinobi don't need to be killing and doing missions to feel of use of value. Maybe all it took was one kind word for one to realize they weren't useless their was a reason for their existence beyond the ninja's duty. She felt a little strange now, when she thought about it, a little emotional even. His kindness her realization, it was all too much. She felt the unfamiliar sting of hot tears burn her eyes. _A shinobi must never exhibit emotions, A shinobi must never show tears…._She cited, but the raven-haired girl with the white forehead reflected in the mirror didn't care. For now at this moment she wasn't a shinobi. Now at this moment she was just a girl in blue pajamas. Now she was just Kin, and it was okay to cry.

oOoOoOoOoOo

The weather changed. The missions kept being assigned and carried out. The final Chunin Exam Tournament started and the ninja's of Konoha went on with the exam. Three ninja were missing, but it wasn't addressed. In fact no one cared to remember the 3 Sound nin, as they were occupied with other matters thanks to Orochimaru and the Sand.  
The room in the hospital in which the pretty tall-girl had once cried stood empty. Forgotten on this solemn day as rain pattered outside signaling the Third Hokage Sarutobi's funeral.

Iruka stood with his former students speaking solemnly "Shinobi all know that one day we will face death, and they fight on to protect the people precious to them, and the ideals of their village, even if they risk their lives. The ideals may be different, but that is the one destiny we all face, to fight and die to protect our people, and what we believe in. That is the purpose of the Shinobi."  
The wind and the rain seized the day and covered it in a gale of darkness. Blowing an eternal song with no tune that swept with it the legacy of those who would be famed heroes memory and those no one would remember.

Hmm... I think it came out pretty well. Hope you guys enjoyed my weird change of direction. Review, ne.

K.S.


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